High-throughput fabrication of polymethylmethacrylate nano-hole arrays for structural coloration using proton beam writing made diamond stamp

• Published in: Microelectronic engineering Vol. 222; p. 111213
• Main Authors: Gong, Jintao, Ansari, Kambiz, Jin, Huining, van Kan, Jeroen A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.02.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: All-PMMA structural coloration; Color; Commercialization; Diamond stamp; Diamonds; Etching; FDTD simulations; Nano-imprinting lithography; PMMA nano-structures; Polymethyl methacrylate; Proton beam writing; Proton beams; Protons; Reactive ion etching; Scattering cross sections; Series (mathematics); Simulation; PMMA nano-structures; All-PMMA structural coloration; Nano-imprinting lithography; FDTD simulations; Diamond stamp; Proton beam writing
• ISSN: 0167-9317; 1873-5568
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mee.2020.111213

We demonstrate the fabrication of a diamond stamp through proton beam writing (PBW) coupled with reactive ion etching (RIE), and the process of corresponding thermal nano-imprinting to free-standing polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) film. Strong structural coloration from the imprinted nano-hole based PMMA patterns was observed. Additionally, we see that 8 nm Cr coating can enhance the structural coloration intensity of PMMA nano-hole. Furthermore, a series of Maxwell solver based finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations were performed to find out theoretical explanations to what we observed in the experiments. The simulation results are in a good agreement with the experimental observations in terms of structural color, color intensity contrast, and Cr coating enhancement. The dependence between the scattering cross section of elliptic nano-hole and polarization angle is discussed as well. This study provides an insight into rapid and high-throughput fabrication of polymer based structural coloration, thus paving the way to bring structural color printings into commercialization driven by large-scale industrial production. [Display omitted] •Diamond stamps can be fabricated via proton beam writing and reactive ion etching.•Mass production of PMMA nano-hole arrays can be achieved using diamond stamps.•Structural coloration from the imprinted PMMA nano-holes has been observed.•The FDTD simulation results have good agreement with the experimental observations.